Computer discs are manufactured to various standard dimensions and are customarily comprised of a flexible magnetic disc permanently housed in a flexible or rigid outer casing. Sometimes referred to as "floppy disks" or "diskettes", these recording media are capable of storing voluminous amounts of information (along the order of 1.4 million bytes for a high density floppy disc) in the form of applications programs, for example word processing, spreadsheet and data base programs, and their corresponding files and data.
Heretofore, it has been the conventional practice to print the general contents of the disc on a separate label and to subsequently affix the label on a predesignated portion of the casing's outer surface. This practice enables the user to quickly reference the disc's contents without the time consuming process of removing the disc from its protective sleeve, inserting it into a computer and pulling up the directory on screen for review. But, due to the ever increasing storage capacities of magnetic recording media it has become impractical, if not impossible, to maintain a current printed directory of a disc's contents on the limited surface area provided by the label.
Moreover, the ease and frequency with which files may be revised, added or removed from the disc, consequently results in labels with multiple erasures which are aesthetically unappealing. Ultimately, these labels must be removed and replaced with new ones. Those familiar with this process will readily attest to the difficulty associated with removal of uncooperative adhesives; a task considered tedious, time consuming and undesirable. Some users prefer to paste new labels over old ones, a practice which is not only aesthetically unappealing, but one which may ultimately affect the disc's ability to be inserted into the drive, due to excessive label build-up.
Efforts were made to provide additional surfaces upon which printed matter could be displayed, beyond that associated with the disc label. U.S. Pat. No. 5,119,933 issued Jun. 9, 1992, to Taylor is a recent example. The Taylor reference teaches a semi-rigid envelope-like body which is actually fixedly attached to the computer disc. All elements of this sleeve are intended to provide amplified areas for printed indicia or other notation. While a greater amount of printed information can, in fact, be stored on the Taylor device, it has limited practicality because, like a label, there is a limited amount of space for the printed matter and it is meant to be a permanent attachment. Here again, the continual process of revising, adding and deleting printed matter from the sleeve and adding new information ultimately results in an unclean, unappealing body surface. It is clear that a significant need exists for a means of storing both a replaceable printed directory of disc contents together with the disc and its identification label. Further, a significant need exists for a device capable of storing multiple copies of the disc's directory, sorted according to various fields, such as by file name, extension, date and otherwise, because the utility of the printed contents of the disc is thereby increased geometrically.
An earlier reference, U.S. Pat. No. 4,566,590, issued Jan. 28, 1986, to Manning et al., combined a storage pouch for magnetic recording media and a separate enclosure for holding printed information. The enclosure is composed of transparent material so that the printed matter may be viewed by the user without the necessity of removing the medium upon which it is recorded. The Manning invention was intended to be used for the storage of a greeting card together with a cassette tape or phonorecord, for instance, and therefore did not address the specific needs of computer disc users as further discussed below.
More particularly, as individuals became more proficient with computers and their many applications, it naturally followed that the average user experienced a growth in the amount of information stored on the discs as well as the number of discs used for information backup purposes. Many users now find it desirable to designate a particular disc for storage of specific subject matter such as financial or correspondence files, for example. As the number of subjects grows, so do the number of requisite discs and the need for ready access to disc contents, via a functional directory as described above. The market has responded by providing users with a myriad of disc storage containers which accommodate from one or two discs up to several hundred. But, these now conventional storage devices are limited in that they are designed to accommodate only diskettes themselves, and not the correlating media for printed information relating to the disc's contents. For instance, like other prior art storage devices, the Taylor device described above is bulky in its construction and incapable of being stored within a conventional disc cabinet. Similarly, German Patent DE 3400024 A1, which teaches a disc storage sleeve having an additional compartment for receiving an information card, is neither capable of, nor intended to be, stored within conventional disc cabinets, boxes, or containers.
The subject invention offers a comprehensive solution to the shortcomings of the above described prior art by providing an improved computer disc storage device whereby both the disc, and printed matter relating to its contents, may be stored together in a single unit which in turn is capable of being stored in conventional disc storage cabinets and the like. It also provides a new level of convenient access to the expanding information as to the contents of the disc.